


A Kiss Before Lying

by strictlyficly



Category: The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Memory Loss, Season 5 AU, season 5 canon divergence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-07 05:51:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18867037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strictlyficly/pseuds/strictlyficly
Summary: They didn't have their memories. They all envied that, though deep down inside they knew that if anyone should have that privilege it should be them. Yet with that privilege came with difficulties because they no longer had their loyalty. It wasn't until now that they realized how much they all relied on them when they were in trouble. How much they leaned on them.





	1. Chapter 1

When this Bonnie girl came back Stefan's reaction was surprise.

Based on their reactions to her resurrection they seemed to have considered her as one of their own. Someone that they were extremely close to. That she wasn't just an acquaintance.

The way that they had spoke of her―well when they had spoken of her―he had came to the conclusion that she was just the occasional ally or someone that they talked to in passing that was always up to help them if the situation was that important.

But as he watched Caroline and Elena hold onto her, tears running down the two girl's faces, to how the man that was apparently his brother stared at her as if he were happy about her return though he was obviously trying to hide it, to how the Jeremy guy looked like he wanted to pry both Caroline and Elena off of her already...he just grew even more confused. And for some reason it made him wonder what his relationship was with her. If they were closer than what Elena and Caroline had led him to believe.

And he wonders if they were as close as they seemed to be now, why the hell did it take them this long to figure out something wasn't right. Typically when your friends with someone you should know them well enough to the point of being able to tell when they're lying or at least if something was off about them. He figures that maybe they had had a falling out before she took off or something. But he remembers Caroline saying something about the occasional letter, and text every now and then.

He can’t help but wonder if something happened with him. What else they could possibly be hiding from him.

When he looks back to the current object of his thoughts he sees that she's looking right back at him and he notices the confusion in her eyes before both Caroline and Elena are suddenly forced away from her and he raises his eyebrows wondering what happened.

"Bonnie?" Elena tentatively calls her friend, still taken back by the witch using her magick against her.

He watches as she looks away from him to the brunette approaching Bonnie as if she were dealing with a lost child.

"What's wrong?" She asks taking a step towards her only to be pushed away again.

Damon frowns at the exchange but decides to ignore the lost look on the witch’s face as she looks around the room and get back to their current problem "Look, I know you probably need some downtime or whatever so I'll let you have ten minutes but then I need you to do something for me." he rolls his eyes when she scowls at him "Jeremy said you were here with us so I already know that you know what I need you to get to work on."

"Damon,”  Elena frowns at him not believing how he's speaking to her. Though it really shouldn't surprise her considering that he has never really talked to Bonnie like he should. "What Damon is  _ trying _ to say is that he needs your help with Stefan."

"Who?" Bonnie questions, returning her attention to the brunette standing a couple of feet in front of her after looking away who she just addressed as Damon once he rolls his eyes clearly annoyed as if  _ she's _ the one that's bothering him. A frown settling across her features when the brunette looks at her as if she's just offended her.

"Bonnie, that's not funny." Elena scolds her, not believing that she even just said that.

Bonnie's frown deepens at her response wondering why she thinks that she's trying to be funny. And why everyone is now looking at her as if she's grown a third head, with the exception of the guy standing off to the side who looks just as confused as she feels.

"I don't think she's kidding." Caroline breathes, finally taking in how uncomfortable Bonnie looks. She thought Bonnie had been tense because of it being the first physical contact she's felt in months but now she knows it's because she wasn't sure what was going on and then she just feels anger and immediately sets her gaze on Damon who groans.

"I don't want to hear it Blondie." Damon says feeling her eyes on him.

"I just want to know why you thought going to the woman that erased Stefan's memories to bring Bonnie back was a good idea." She says, arms crossed against her chest.

"Excuse me for thinking that she wouldn't do the same thing to her own blood."

"Why? Stefan's your brother and you betrayed him." Caroline retorts.

"Caroline," Elena shrieks. It was hard enough for her to even get Stefan to be in the same room with them, she didn't want anyone to bring up what drove him off in the first place.

Having come to the conclusion that she's not going to get anywhere with them Bonnie takes advantage of the distraction the blonde and the raven haired man bring and turns to leave only to collide with a man with blonde hair and blue eyes. Who apologizes before blinking several times whispering her name and immediately pulls her into his arms. At first she tenses and is just about to push him away but he pulls back looking at her, hurt clear in his eyes apparently having felt her tense at his touch. However unlike the others, she actually feels bad for having apparently hurt his feelings.

"Bonnie," Elena calls after the witch noticing her slinking off "where are you going?"

"Home," Bonnie answers as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Rolling her eyes when she gets baffled looks in return.

"I thought you didn't-"

"If I didn't remember anything I wouldn't answer to my own name. But you would know that if you had bothered to actually ask me anything in the first place." Bonnie throws out annoyed by the brunette vampire. She wasn't sure why but something about her just irked her to no end. But now that she thought about it, no one seemed to have asked her if she was even okay. She frowns when she hears a small laugh coming from her right,

"What's so funny?"

Stefan clears his throat and tries to fight back the tug he feels at the corner of his lips figuring he's failing when Bonnie's eyes narrow into slits,

"Stefan," He says slowly raising his hand hoping that it'll clue her in.

"I didn't ask for your name, I asked what you found so funny." She frowns ignoring the looks she's getting in return.

"It's just that I thought I was handling this bad." Stefan shrugs unfazed by her tone.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Bonnie crosses her arms over her chest.

"I'm just as lost as you are but I'm nowhere as near as hostile to them."

"I'm not hostile." Bonnie denies. She woke up in a room full of strangers with no idea of how she got there. How was she supposed to react?

"Then what do you call it?"

"Apprehensive. Smart. If you woke up in a room full of vampires with the exception of one who is looking at you like a piece of meat even more so than the ones that actually see people like me as a meal, you wouldn't exactly be comfortable either." Her eyes briefly flit to Jeremy watching as he turns red, his gaze going to his feet.

"They're your friends."

"I find that hard to believe." She scoffs, remembering the way she was greeted by the dark haired vampire upon waking up.

Stefan raises an eyebrow experimentally taking a step closer, smirking when she doesn't even flinch "And why is that?"

Bonnie studies him for a moment contemplating answering but decides against it when his name registers "You're distracting me." Bonnie frowns looking away from him and back to her so called friends noticing the confused looks on their faces with the exception of the dark haired man that was bickering with the blonde a few moments ago "Look I'm sure you're all lovely people but I…" Bonnie trails off and sighs "Fuck it." she mutters under her breath seeing no point in sugar coating it "I don't want to be here."


	2. Chapter 2

The room is silent, Bonnie’s declaration hitting everyone like a slap to the face.

Bonnie expects the girl with the doe eyes to be the first to speak up but she can’t say that she’s surprised when it’s the tall dark haired vampire to the brunette’s left that breaks the silence and she feels her blood boil.

“Well that’s too bad,” Damon gives her a smile that manages to look both sympathetic and arrogant “because you’re not going anywhere until you fix this.”

Everyone can only watch as Damon falls to his knees, the vampire’s hands clutching at his stomach, eyes slamming shut as loud groans fall from his lips before he falls over, blood spilling from his mouth.

“Bonnie! Bonnie, what are you doing? Stop! You’re hurting him! Please!” Elena pleads struggling to rush to Damon’s side wondering why no one else is trying to come to his aide only to see that they look just as helpless. With the exception of Caroline who looks on with a look between indifference and morbid fascination, and Matt who looks torn between feeling bad and fighting a smile, clearly pleased that someone is tired of the elder Salvatore’s mouth and is actually doing something about it besides rolling their eyes.

“Listen to me you pretentious entitled bastard.” Bonnie starts, having decided to ignore the brunette, her concern for the man that just tried to order her around furthering her own thoughts that they weren’t as close as she initially tried to lead her to believe “I know that you were born in a time where men were considered to be at the top of the pyramid, so you actually have a valid excuse for that shitty mentality you’re walking around with right now. But we are not in the eighteen hundreds anymore.” she pauses to let her words sink in “Based on your little display here, I’m getting the feeling that we didn’t establish this concept the first time we met so we’re going to do it now. I do not take orders from you, you do not own me and the next time you try to throw your weight around in my presence I will take a stake and have you do the honors of shoving it through your heart yourself. Your first and last good deed to the rest of the world. I think it’ll be fitting considering how you obviously think that you’re the greatest thing to ever walk it. Are we clear?” Bonnie raises an eyebrow, pretending to be confused when Damon finally opens his mouth but no words come out.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” She leans forward, cupping her ear.

“Crystal,” Damon grits out through his teeth when Bonnie lightens her attack just enough for him to speak.

“Perfect,” Bonnie smiles down at him, using her magick to lift him from the ground, sending him flying back until he crashes into the wall with a loud thump.

“Does anyone else want to try to keep me from leaving?” Bonnie inquires looking around the room nodding her head when she doesn’t hear any protests “Good choice,” She smiles as she turns on her heel to leave the boarding house. Missing the smile on Stefan’s face and the slight tilt of his head as he watches the sway of her hips while she makes her exit.

“Stefan,” Caroline calls after the vampire when she spots him shamelessly watching Bonnie leave, not even bothering to look away even as he responds.

“Hm?”

“No,” She shakes her head when he finally turns to meet her gaze, giving him a look when his lips part to deny her unvocalized accusation.

“You don’t trust me?”

Caroline blinks taken back by his question then rolls her eyes “Nice try,” She snorts, frowning when she sees him speed off, tensing when she spots him blocking Bonnie’s path fully expecting him to be thrown across the room only to be left shocked when Bonnie merely jumps at his sudden appearance before seeming annoyed.

“Just give them...five minutes.”

Bonnie narrows her eyes at Stefan when she sees the brief quirk of his lips as he stares down at her.

“Is that what you did?”

“You seem to be on good terms with them, so is that what you did?” She clarifies when she sees that he didn’t understand her question.

“Not exactly,” He answers.

“Not exactly?” Bonnie repeats, confusion evident in her voice.

“The pretentious entitled bastard is my brother.” He explains, watching as she scowls at the reveal, her eyes flitting to Damon who flinches and he can’t help but smile at the fact that someone that barely reaches his shoulder has his brother shaking in his boots.

“No offense Stefan,” Bonnie starts, shifting her gaze from Damon to the vampire standing before her “but I really don’t want to hear anything about your brother so can you please just get to your point?”

Stefan grins finding her blatant dislike for Damon and general bluntness amusing “Just hear them out.”

Bonnie holds Stefan’s gaze, letting out a deep breath when she feels several bouts of anxiety hit her at once, realizing that they’re from the other occupants of the room and lets out a long breath.

“Fine,” she agrees, staring up at the vampire curiously when he takes her hand in his leading her over to the table, pulling out a chair for her to sit.

 

Somehow five minutes turned into forty and Bonnie is left wondering what the hell is wrong with her. The only valid explanation she can come up with is that she had a severe martyr complex and they all just glossed over that and chalked it up to her being a really good friend. Once that dawns on her she finds herself trying to figure out what it was about them that made her feel such loyalty towards these people. Because from where she was sitting as of right now, she couldn’t see it.

“Bonnie?” Caroline calls the young witch’s name slowly, her friend’s continued silence putting her on edge. She had tried several times to get Elena to stop talking, having seen Bonnie’s anger continue to grow with each word and excuse that the passed the brunette’s lips but the doppelgänger just kept going and going and going. It’s not that she wanted to withhold information from Bonnie but she didn’t think that unloading it all at once was the best way to go. Especially if Elena was going to end it with  _ suggesting _ that she got her memories back.

“I should leave.”

“What?” Elena frowns shaking her head “No Bonnie, you can’t-”

“I can’t?” Bonnie erupts, her hands slamming down onto the table in front of her as she rises from her seat with such force that it leaves a crack. Watching as the brunette currently seated across from her physically recoils back in her seat, wariness clear in her brown eyes as she stares back at her.

Elena lets out a shaky breath before opening her mouth “Bonnie, I know that you’re upset right now but you can’t just walk around without your memories. That’s eighteen years-”

“Yeah,” Bonnie agrees, cutting her off with a nod “Of a shitty existence. And before you even try to play the best friend card I think we can all agree that that’s bullshit. I’m not your best friend, hell I’m not even your friend. I’m an afterthought. And even that’s being generous.”

“I mean,” Bonnie starts “I told you that I was going to spend the summer with the mother that abandoned me and you didn’t call me to see how I was handling that?  _ And _ on top of that I had just resurrected my boyfriend―ex―whatever, and I didn’t spend at least one day with him to make up for the time that we weren’t together? And if that’s not enough to raise a few flags, I didn’t say goodbye to you or anyone here before I just took off? And you were okay with that. I mean, seriously!” she screams, a fire flaring to life in the fireplace “What would it have taken for you to notice that something wasn’t right? And you,” she turns to Jeremy who has guilt written all over his face “why didn’t you do something to try to bring me back to life? I know you’re not a warlock or anything but you had to have at least met someone in my family or you could have at least tried to reach out to a witch to find some way to bring me back. If I loved you enough to perform a spell to bring you back to life and end up losing  _ my _ life in the process, you should have at least shown me the same kind of love to do  _ something _ .”

Jeremy knows that he should be coming up with an excuse or defense for himself but he’s too busy dwelling on her use of past tense when it came to her love for him.

Bonnie looks around the room waiting for someone to say something and when minutes go by and she’s met with nothing but guilty looks she closes her eyes and lets out a deep breath,

“This would be the part where you say something to try to defend yourselves.”

“You told me to keep your death a secret.”

Bonnie frowns turning her gaze to Jeremy, letting out a scoff when she realizes that he’s serious and that he actually thinks that that is a valid excuse,

“And you just went along with it.”

He nods,

“You said that you didn’t want to ruin everyone’s summer. You wanted them to enjoy it, not spend it trying to find a way to bring you back.”

As Jeremy explains why he kept her death a secret Bonnie finds herself wondering yet again what the hell was wrong with her. Why she was even remotely okay with being dead while her friends got to live it up. Enjoying their summers as High School Graduates all without her. And it makes her wonder why they never once thought to call her to ask her to join in on that fun. If they were all such good friends, wouldn’t they want her to attend at least one party with them before they went off to college or at least question her absence on Grad Night. Speaking of college, shouldn’t they have at least tried to reach out to her to see where she was? Why she would miss the first day? Unless…

“I didn’t want to ruin everyone’s summer?” Bonnie says looking back up to her ex “So college hasn’t started yet?” She inquires after he nods.

“No it has-”

“So I’m not in college?”

“No you are-”

“So I didn’t show up for my first day of classes and no one thought to call me and see why.”

“You had me send emails and texts-”

“Emails and texts?” Bonnie repeats through a laugh “And that worked? They were all okay with that?” she fires off the questions to him as if they weren’t all in the room “What the hell is wrong with me?” She mutters under her breath as she pushes her hair back not believing her ears.

Both Caroline and Elena exchange worried glances when Bonnie does nothing but start to pace back and forth with a contrite look on her face.

“Who brought me back to life?”

“Qetsiyah,” Elena takes it upon herself to answer Bonnie’s question “She’s your ancestor.” She elaborates when Bonnie gives her a blank stare in response.

“So I died and instead of contacting my mother who I was supposedly spending the summer with you went to some random relative?”

“What?” Bonnie frowns when Elena only lowers her eyes.

“Your mother isn’t a witch.”

“Okay, then why didn’t you just go to my dad?”

“He’s not a witch either.”

Bonnie blinks, the reveal not making sense.

“Your mom used to be a witch but she was turned into a vampire.” Elena explains when she finally gathers the nerve to look back up and sees the look of confusion on her bestfriend’s face.

“Okay,” Bonnie says finding it off putting that she’s not bothered by the reveal “And my  _ dad _ . Where is he?”

Elena swallows and shifts under the witch’s stare “He’s...he’s dead.”

“By the guilty looks on your faces, I’m going to go ahead and assume that he hasn’t been dead for very long.” Bonnie nearly laughs when they manage to look even more guilty at her assessment.

“No, he hasn’t.” Elena confirms wondering why she doesn’t seem to be affected by the news but figures that it’s because she doesn’t remember him either.

“How long?” Bonnie crosses her arms.

“About a month.” Elena answers after a moment, jumping along with everyone else when the lights flicker.

“And no one thought it was strange that I didn’t come back for his funeral? No one thought to call and check on me? See how I was handling that? Or did you all just get an email and a couple of texts and keep moving. Going back to whatever the hell you were doing all summer while I was off trying to build a relationship with the mother that abandoned me and the recent loss of the one parent who was a constant in my life. I don’t even know why I’m surprised. But then again maybe you couldn’t blame me, after everything how could I not want to get out of this town? Going away for the summer sounds like the smartest thing I’ve done in years.”

“Bonnie!” Elena shrieks taken back by her rant, looking up to see that Caroline, Matt and Jeremy seem just as taken back as she feels. One look at Damon and even Stefan show that they seem to share the same sentiments though more subdued than everyone else.

“Oh, you have got to be shitting me right now.” Bonnie shakes her head “You claim that  _ you’re _ my best friend, the closest that you have to a sister but you’ve yet to show me something other than a couple of tears and now you want to act like I’m the one that’s offending you. What kind of…” Bonnie trails off and takes a deep breath feeling her magick rise to the surface, practically begging to be released but she stops herself.

“I’m going to do us all a favor and leave before I do something that I won’t take back.” Bonnie says looking around the room as she starts to walk backwards, holding Stefan’s stare for a moment seeing the understanding in his eyes before she turns on her heel making her way out of the boarding house.

 

Upon Bonnie’s exit the room falls into a deafening silence.

Stefan tilts his head at the look of melancholy on Elena’s face. While Caroline, Matt and Jeremy all look as if they’ve had their hearts ripped right out of their chests. And while he knows that he should feel a bit sympathetic towards them he can’t even bring himself to pity the latter of the bunch.

“Nice going Stefan.”

Stefan frowns and turns to Damon watching as his brother rises from his seat and slowly make his way towards the decanter pouring himself a drink.

“You’re blaming me for this?”

Damon smiles and mockingly raises his glass towards him.

“Is...is this a thing? You say something and get your ass handed to you and then you turn around and blame me?”

“Stop,” Elena says lowly not in the mood to hear them fight. Slightly taken aback when neither protest or continue as if they hadn’t heard her.

“So what are we going to do?” Jeremy questions looking at everyone in the room.

“We can’t just leave her like that.” the Hunter frowns when everyone turns to look at him, blank looks on their faces, with the exception of Damon who just looks annoyed “Bonnie wouldn’t want us to just sit around and do nothing.”

“Isn’t that exactly what you did?” Stefan looks at Jeremy, unfazed when he glares at him in response.

Damon smirks, raising his glass to his lips taking a sip, happy that someone said it. While Caroline and Elena stare at the younger Salvatore in shock, unsure of what’s gotten into him.

“Maybe we should leave Bon alone,” Matt says ignoring the looks he gets in return “It’s not like she’s some damsel in distress. You saw what she did to Damon. I don’t think we should even try to push her on this, she doesn’t really seem to have the same restraint that our Bonnie does. Besides, can you really blame her for not wanting anything to do with us? If that happened to me, I wouldn’t. And whether you want to admit it or not...we deserved everything she said.”

Elena lets out a frustrated breath, everything in her wanting to disagree but she knows that Matt has a point.

“And who knows, maybe her memories will come back on their own. Eventually.” Caroline adds though it’s clear to everyone that she doesn’t believe that that’s a possibility any more than they do.

Damon scowls at the resident blondes, he’s just about to open his mouth to shut down Matt’s idea but Elena beats him to it and before he can protest he sees that everyone seems to be on the same page with the exception of Jeremy who makes his stance on the group’s consensus known by the slamming of the front door after he storms out of the room. But when he sees the look in his brother’s eyes he can tell that he’s not the only one that’s about to go rogue. Evidenced by the fact that they both attempt to make quick exits only to stop when both Elena and Caroline call his and his brother’s name respectively.

“Fine, but if your little  _ theory _ doesn’t work out, I’m doing it my way.”

“And what would that be?” Caroline raises an eyebrow as she looks at Damon who is currently refilling his now empty glass “Trying to intimidate her again? Because that worked  _ so _ well the last time.”

“You’ll find out soon enough.” Damon smirks at her before strolling off to another part of the boarding house.


End file.
